The West African Examinations Council is encountering increasing condemnation regarding the credibility of its recently published 2026 West African Senior School Certificate Examination results for school candidates, as institutional leaders and academic campaigners allege marking discrepancies and technical failures associated with the expanded Computer-Based Testing rollout.
The misgivings follow grievances from institutional leaders and academic campaigners who assert that several high-achieving pupils received lower marks than anticipated, judging by their historical academic records and performance in alternative standardized evaluations.
Speaking in an interview with our reporter on Monday, the Administrator of Impact House Model Schools, Mowe, Ogun State, Sam Abdulazeez, noted that the institution had detected a downturn in its pupils’ outcomes in the 2025 and 2026 WASSCE despite retaining its educational personnel, upgrading its infrastructure, and stepping up test preparations.
He mentioned that the institution had been presenting candidates for WASSCE since 2017 and had documented impressive outcomes, notably in Mathematics and English Language. Abdulazeez recalled that in 2024, all 45 candidates presented by the school for Mathematics obtained A1.
However, he stated that the narrative shifted in subsequent years following the rollout of serialisation and CBT.
“This year, out of the 69 children we presented for JAMB, over 30 of them had more than 300 in JAMB. And you know that JAMB is completely CBT,” Abdulazeez said. He added that none of the school’s candidates scored below 200 in the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, attributing the performance to extensive preparations.
According to him, the institution organized 22 trial UTME evaluations prior to the main test, with pupils routinely using computers to replicate the testing environment.
He explained that the discrepancy became more glaring once the WASSCE marks were published.
Abdulazeez noted that the school recorded merely three or four top-tier grades in Mathematics among its 69 candidates, despite previously achieving far superior outcomes.
“In Mathematics, we had children who had up to 98 in Mathematics during UTME. Now, the As we had in Mathematics, maybe about three or four out of 69. This is a school that we usually have almost everybody having A1 in Math.”
He likewise voiced concern over the English Language outcomes, observing that several candidates who scored high in the UTME failed to secure the marks the institution anticipated in WASSCE.
“We only had B and maybe a few Cs. Out of the 69, I think we have three credits, and all others are B2, B3,” he said. The institutional administrator stated that the facility had retained a competent teaching staff, emphasizing that it refrained from hiring educators possessing credentials below a second-class upper degree.
He further revealed that the institution invested heavily in equipment after WAEC announced intentions to implement computer-based testing.
However, Abdulazeez indicated that the facility experienced technical glitches during a trial assessment administered by WAEC representatives shortly before the main evaluation.
“They did it the first day; the systems could not connect to their own server. They came the second day; they did it, but it was not successful,” he said.
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He noted that the school subsequently reached out to WAEC representatives in Ogun State and Lagos, clarifying that it could not run the risk of letting its candidates take the evaluation via a system it deemed unreliable.
According to him, WAEC eventually permitted the school to administer a paper-based evaluation, despite the facility already being enrolled on the CBT portal.
Abdulazeez mentioned that a comparable issue had surfaced regarding the school’s 2025 WASSCE outcomes. “Last year, we had this same problem with WAEC. Some of my children who were expecting A1, they dropped to B. Those who were expecting B dropped to C,” he said.
He asserted that the institution later identified alterations in the marks displayed on the results portal.
“When last year’s result was released, I had already gone to publish the result, only for some people to call me that it’s like they have made some changes.
“When we checked the result back again, we saw that those who they gave B had moved to A1. Those who they gave C moved to B last year.”
Abdulazeez explained that this experience prompted him to pause before releasing the 2026 outcomes, anticipating that similar modifications might occur.
He ultimately published the marks after no revisions materialized.
He also raised apprehension regarding the potential influence of diverse test paper formats, popularised as serialisation. “For me, because I did not do CBT in our school, I don’t know how they go about their serialisation. I think it has to be, because we saw it in the subjects that have serialisation, like Mathematics, like English, Economics, and Biology,” he said.
He observed that the school encountered no major concerns in subjects where serialisation played no prominent role, adding that pupils performed better in those disciplines.
Consequently, Abdulazeez joined other stakeholders demanding an external audit of the 2026 WASSCE outcomes.
“If the schools and the examining bodies cannot conduct the exam properly, it should not affect these children and their future,” he said.
He further dismissed assertions that declining scores could merely be attributed to students’ lack of readiness following the introduction of CBT.
“Some people were saying that children don’t read again; it’s because WAEC has gone to CBT, that’s why children are failing. Sir, JAMB had been doing CBT for a long time now,” he said.
He added, “When you do all that, and you now discover that the result does not justify the effort, then it calls for concern.” Another institutional leader, who requested anonymity, mentioned that several pupils who achieved elevated scores in the recent UTME and had previously cleared the General Certificate Examination were awarded D7, E8 and F9 marks in core subjects in the 2026 WASSCE.
“Students with top scores in JAMB and verified track records are suddenly receiving D7s, E8s, and F9s in WAEC,” the administrator said.
He added that two affected students who had already secured admission to the University of Ibadan were recorded as failing Mathematics and English Language in the newly released WAEC results.
An education specialist, Fola Adekeye, urged WAEC to guarantee that its testing protocols and scores withstand the test of integrity. He stated that testing bodies ought not to await public outcry before reviewing complaints regarding their results, warning that such passivity could undermine public faith in the examination framework.
“Those who are managing destinies — exams, exams are destiny issues. Children want to make their results; they want to be doctors, they want to be lawyers, they want to be astronauts. Those managing those checkpoints should do better.
“The public outcry shouldn’t become the determinant of most of these things. They should do the right thing.” Adekeye remarked that the controversy following the release of the 2025 UTME outcomes by JAMB underscored the necessity for testing bodies to proactively spot and rectify technical or operational flaws.
He shared that several pupils in his institution who had previously shown academic strength were among those whose WAEC scores generated worry.
“Our head boy had 369, was the third in the federation. Our head girl and another student did so well in JAMB, but suddenly WAEC came out, and only the head boy is having five As and Bs.”
Adekeye, nonethless, warned against leveling unsubstantiated claims against WAEC, highlighting that his primary concern was the fairness and trustworthiness of the testing system.
“I don’t question exam bodies. I always plead that they should please ensure that what they do will pass the test of integrity,” he said.
He advocated for WAEC to modernize its infrastructure where necessary and properly convey technological and procedural shifts in test administration.
“If their facilities are outdated and they need to upgrade them, please let them upgrade them,” he said. He further advised the testing board to thoroughly explain any adjustments to its syllabus or marking framework prior to implementation.
“If they are coming out with a new curriculum, let them do it. If they are shifting from one particular method of questioning to a particular method of questioning, let them make it clear so that students will be on the same page with all other stakeholders,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Initiative for School Excellence and Education Foundation, via its legal team, Zuriel Law Practice, has threatened to initiate court action against WAEC concerning alleged irregularities in the execution and grading of the 2026 Computer-Based WASSCE.
The group stated it had received complaints from candidates alleging discrepancies in the recording and processing of their responses.
In a formal demand addressed to WAEC, the lawyers requested the immediate preservation of original electronic records, including candidate response databases, system audit trails, server logs and scoring records.
The entity also requested full disclosure of the technical protocols, regulations, and manuals governing the 2026 CBE, proposing a system enabling affected candidates to review their examination data, including test questions, saved responses, and evaluation methods.
It additionally advocated for an external audit of the CBT framework by academic and information technology specialists. The legal counsel granted WAEC a 14-day window from receipt of the notice to confirm the preservation of data and set up the requested evaluation procedures.
Failure to respond within the designated window, the attorneys cautioned, would prompt court action demanding mandates for disclosure, verification, and human re-evaluations of affected scores.
The founder of ISEE, Alex Onyia, likewise called for increased openness in WAEC’s evaluation framework, particularly amid allegations of question leakage in some paper-based examination centres.
He questioned whether candidates who sat examinations under different conditions were standardised as one population.
“When WAEC carried out its standardisation, were candidates from fundamentally different examination conditions treated as one population?” he asked.
Onyia contended that if compromised test papers had artificially boosted certain candidate scores, the resulting distribution could potentially warp the benchmarks applied to award final grades.
He implored WAEC to release raw score distributions, grade cutoffs for primary subjects, and specifics regarding how candidates across diverse testing modes were harmonized. “Show us the data,” Onyia demanded, asking WAEC to disclose the thresholds that produced A1, B2, B3, C4, C5 and C6 in major subjects.
He additionally pressed for clarity regarding the appeal system for candidates contesting their marks and called upon the authorities to investigate allegations of internal management problems within WAEC Nigeria.
“This is not an attack on WAEC. It is a demand for accountability,” he said.
Onyia encouraged the Federal Ministry of Education along with the National Assembly to summon the leadership of WAEC Nigeria to clarify the methodologies deployed in compiling the 2026 outcomes.
However, The PUNCH reported on Thursday that WAEC defended the integrity of the 2026 WASSCE results amid the criticisms.
The testing board noted that it had monitored commentary, particularly from online creators and social media observers, disputing the validity and reliability of the outcomes.
WAEC’s Head of Public Affairs, Moyosola Adesina, stated that the scores were generated through rigorous and quality-assured protocols that have guided the council’s operations over time. The board affirmed that the 2026 WASSCE for School Candidates was administered in accordance with established operational guidelines and relevant educational mandates, in partnership with the Federal Ministry of Education.
The testing council also urged candidates, parents, schools, and the general public to exercise discretion regarding unconfirmed claims concerning the performance data.
WAEC clarified that every candidate’s answer sheet went through a multi-tiered framework of marking, moderation, and auditing founded on standardized scoring keys and monitored by certified subject specialists.
The council advised members of the public with concerns about their results to contact it directly through its offices and verified communication platforms rather than relying on social media speculation.
Nigerian testing authorities have faced intense scrutiny in recent years due to technical glitches in published results.
In 2025, the former JAMB Registrar, Prof Ishaq Oloyede, broke down in tears as he apologised for the errors in the 2025 UTME.
Oloyede, at the start of a press briefing in Abuja, had acknowledged “one or two errors” made during the exam.
